Hey guys,
I used to work for Optus' call centre in Sydney for billing and general enquiries for 4 years and also worked for retail for 4 years. I believe I have enough experience to give you an insight.
Ask me anything you like :D
Edit: I will be ignoring your post if you're going to ask me how to fix your problem, please contact Optus for that as process may have changed
Previously we had discounted plans and employee plans but it was so bad that employees were just signing up to normal, new customer plans which were better. Ironically.
I don't want to say the exact amount but I am on a $75 per month plan, and my bill used to be 0.00 per month.
Though, my workmates and I calculated if you work full time on a normal 37.5 hour weekly wage, if someone was to find another job, they would need a $0.50 more per hour which is equivalent to the employee discount. Putting in that perspective, the employee discount is mediocre at best.
Optus are very proactive with signing new Business customers but once the contract is signed, after sale support is pretty much non existent.
Currently in a dispute with Optus and now moving back to Telstra due to shocking coverage and support.
Could you shed some light on this?
Optus has strict policies and processes in place. When a customer comes in with an enquiry / dispute in-which its out of the reps control then everyone goes into frenzy mode. Meaning, we need to find the process 1st, if there is one, if not, then what is the solution? In nearly all cases, each dispute is unique and there is not one solution that fits all. That's why you have reps telling you different solutions. If one comes up with a solution and it's not an official process then it needs to bypass managers and maybe other departments whom that manager needs to know as well.
I know it can be frustrating, and believe me, it is. We cop it as well in the call centre and in-store trying to get a solution from people who think can apply that solution. And even though we know the solution, its up to the rep or manager we speak to, to apply that solution, but that solution isn't in the process therefor that rep needs to get approval from their manager and managers do what? Follow process and hence delays the solution and everyone goes into a frenzy.
This is where miscommunication lies where one department says something else to you and WE ALL go around the merry go round looking for the right people to apply the right solution.
But, because there is no official process for that dispute, even though it may happen 100's of times before hand, each case is different and needs to be treated differently. Until you find a rep that has the power to actually apply the resolution you need.
Example: A customer came into store with a faulty HTC, it was proven with VIDEO evidence and in-store by MYSELF that the phone itself restarts by itself every 5 minutes or so. In-store we have basic tests we can do, such as clearing the cache, uninstalling some apps etc, that may fix the problem. Worst case scenario before sending it under warranty is factory resetting the phone in-which the customer did. Problem still there. I sent the phone in for repairs tell them to watch the video in the phone and I have whitnessed the phone restarting 3 times on its own. After 5 days, the phone came back as "no fault found". As you can imagine the customer was ticked off. So would I. We sent it in a 2nd time, came back as "no fault found". You see, in-store we have no power, even the manager has no power to give a new phone to the customer, it's up to the repair centre to determine that. Customer called billing and retention, they wouldn't budge because the power lies within the repair centre to determine a replacement phone. Customer sent it in a 3rd time, usually when you send a phone in a 3rd time they have a solution. Nope, came back as "no fault found". Customer went to the TIO and the solution was compensation and recontract on a new phone for 0.00. But the moral of the story is that: people just follow process and when something out of process happens, no one knows what to do because we all know that who ever we talk to will be clueless too and will not have authority to approve such solutions outside a process. In this case, the only department that can approve a replacement phone is the repair centre before the TIO complaint.
Lol I know what it means…. useless predefined operation procedures…
I bet in repair center (third party I guess) no one actually tried to reset or factory default or optus default the phone. They just run pre-defined routine app or API… came back with nothing.
Same with all telcos in australia
This kind of story just highlights why my wife will never sign up or deal with Optus again. Just so frustrating for staff and customer. It's time and un needed stress. After 2nd attempt the customer should have been offered compensation. But as CS system is so rank as you couldn't do anything, the customer has to go through Consumer law methods.
Optus $2 Days went to $3 Days
If i called as long long time customer of that product and put it to them that i am willing to leave Optus if they can not make $2 a day again, would they consider that to keep a customer?
Honestly, threatening to leave means nothing. If you found a better deal or your plan is about to change due to your old plan is archived, threatening to leave won't fix it. Also, being a long long time customer means nothing as well. Sorry, that's the truth. Want to actually impress Optus? Spend significantly more than your plan per month. If you're on a $60 pre-paid per month or a $80 plan per month, double or triple that per-month. We had calculators (when I was working) in the call centre, we would measure their average spend vs their minimum contracted plan and it would spit out a figure on how much goodwill credit we can give. The customers that get the promotional sms' or early upgrade fee offers are the ones that most likely spend over their monthly minimum contract.
The only way to keep that plan is to ride it out as long as you can until the system changes you automatically. No one can bring back that plan, the team that approves these plan changes is final. There's no point in fighting for it.
I've heard customer service makes you racist. Is it true? Is it for you?
For me, personally. It's a big fat no. I never stereotype customers as you can never tell who are the honest ones and who are the dishonest ones. Customers will and skew stories to try give them what they want and its those types of people that makes me angry because the honest ones gets nothing while the ones that complains get everything.
Our training within Optus is very comprehensive and never judges anyone or anything which I loved.
But, due to our society constructs on current business practices to minimise cost, I strongly believe due to these factors, customers are passively racist, indirectly and directly. There are so many times where customers would say;
- I want to speak to an Australian
- Thankgod you're Australian (I don't have an accent)
- I hate speaking to Indians and Asians
And in store I had people not wanting to speak to me because I am a person of non-caucasian background.
People were racist before coming into customer service.
Thanks for the response :)
Are Optus really this incompetent?
A friend of mine had Optus ADSL, and received a letter from them last October telling him his line would be disconnected on or after Jan 15. I told him to call up and get connected to the NBN. Optus told him no can do!
After some research, I found the problem. For some reason, NBNCo didn't have his units address in their database. They had units 1 and 2 though.
NBNCo won't deal with this issue, and told him he needed to call Optus, and they could put in a request to have the address added. Nothing happened.
Fed up, I told him to try another ISP. He called TPG. They put in the request, and in less than a week, not only had the address been added, but he was all connected.
Now … he still has his mobile service with Optus, so I figured that would be enough to keep his Optus E-Mail address. Apparently not.
Are they really this incompetent?
This is a common problem with new properties with Optus. To my understanding, Optus gets the addresses from Australia Post.
If an address is not in our system there could be a number of reasons why;
1 - Address not in Australia Post yet
2 - The council has not rated that property
3 - The address is entered incorrectly in our system
A rep needs to followup with the backend team who deals with the addresses and they will be able to tell the rep the exact reason why the address isn't showing. They usually get back to the rep within 2 business days but finding that email and finding that internal form took me like 1 week to find. :(
The address has been there for at least 15 years, and Optus knew it was an address because they send bills for the Optus services he has. Besides, it was NBNCo that didn't have the address. If TPG can sort it in a week, it really is an insight to just how badly Optus want to retain customers.
Do you have any advise on the E-Mail situation?
if NBNCo that didn't have the address, then that rep will relay that information to the backend team who deals with NBN addresses and they will give an answer. Whenever I contacted them, they are spot on with their answer.
Email situation? As in keeping the optusnet email? Account holder needs to contact tech support and advise of a T90 process to keep the email in quarantine for 90 days, the account holder needs to open up, lets say a mobile broadband service and call tech support again to transfer that email in the "T90" stage to that new service.
@hasher22: So a mobile plan with included data doesn't count?
Geez … Optus really do wanna throw away customers.
@photonbuddy: No, a mobile phone plan does not count, needs to be wireless broadband. To be fair, when has a mobile phone plan ever came with an email address?
Whenever a customer signs up for a internet plan, I always tell them to get gmail, outlook, hotmail, yahoo etc emails because it will always be there, not like carrier specific emails cause if this happens, someone decides to move to another carrier then the email goes with it.
Do you know what happened to Tasty Tuesdays?
Unfortunately no, I resigned before those kicked in. I took advantage of that offer too! Freebies at Oportos? YES PLEASE!
But with any guess, Optus and those affiliated stores weren't making money so they canned it.
Do you guys back down or let things slide when a customer threatens to take it to the 'Ombudsman'? Its personally worked in my favour on a few occasions.
Of course, any telco would. A customer can go to the TIO whenever they like, it's part of any telco complaint process but its recommended that they try fix the issue with the provider first.
Each complaint made to the TIO charges Optus $XXX.XX and each complaint after that with the same issue and customer, the fee gets higher and higher.
So if a customer is complaining they want a $50 credit and the rep says no but then threatens to go to the TIO, well you can see who will back down first.
I'm a real time analyst/work force planning team and have only ever been in 1 call centre environment. Is there an equivalent at where you were at and did they micromanage the operators like I do?
I don't think I understand your question, but I think I know the answer.
Micromanaging is real and it's hard for managers not to micromanage because they are forced from upper management to meet stats. They are hounded daily, the centre manager is hounded, then the team leader is hounded then it trickles down the call centre reps.
Everything had a KPI from when you first login, to when you go on your breaks, to the toilet breaks, how many customers you answered, repeat calls, notes left on the account, follow ups, hold time, average handling time, calls last lasted less than 1 minute etc etc. For me, I was lucky cause I was pretty good at my job for the micro management to settle but I felt sorry for other reps. If you can think of anything, YUP ITS A KPI.
There is so much pressure on these reps and I really do feel bad. I don't know how I survived 4 years+.
Hi what is your annual income. Including your bonus?
Call centre: roughly around 38k - 40k per year. 38k to 48k including yearly bonus
In-store rep: roughly the same thing. I was getting paid $20.50, commission varies from rep to rep and its paid monthly. 1.5 years we didn't even make commission because they didn't replace staff members that left and they reduced our store hours. Everyone was miserable.
If you want to know more, read my reply to Imhereforcomments
we've been with optus for about 15 years, and all the retention team could offer was $10 off the bill for 6 months. was pretty peeved.
quite happy to go with another isp now that nbn is in my area.
what would your advice be on how to get the best service from optus call centres? whats the best way to get discounts and stuff?
do you enjoy it there? and are you/would you move to somewhere else?
$10 for 6 months is prob the best you'll get at that time. There is no tricks to get a discount directly from any reps. Optus is in a space of reducing the amount of goodwill credits given.
My advice to get the best service is….. BE NICE! Seriously, this works not only with me but with alot of reps. Even if you're so angry with Optus or whatever, BE NICE, most likely that rep will bend over backwards for you. Screaming, being angry, yelling etc won't help. We are humans too, we follow processes. if you don't get the resolution you want, simply talk to a manager, if that doesn't solve it… go to the TIO. Simple.
People back away if they are irate at, it's just human nature. In life, would u help a person that is irate to you? No, you rebel.
How come Optus doesn't have the ability for iPhones to use Visual Voicemail?
No idea, sorry. The devs may not have gotten to it yet? Like my bank, St George haven't implemented phone paypass/tap and go feature :S
Hi there, would be keen to know how to prevent unauthorised porting? thanks in advance
Please contact Optus for detailed explanation but short answer is……. you can't.
Ask me anything you like :D
Edit: I will be ignoring your post if you're going to ask me
What is it now ?
Anyway if OP still answering:
Why does OPTUS not allow to upgrade ( 12 month ) plan during those 12 month, for a more expensive plan ?
I am ignoring posts that simply want help to their situation. For example: If you asked, How do I upgrade my 12m contract.. then I will ignore this question.
Anyways….
You signed a 12m contract, you are obligated to fulfill that contract unless Optus states otherwise. You can go from a 12m to a 24m contract without charge (this may change) as the 12m contract allows you to do so, but going from 12m to a higher $$ per month 12m, yes there will be a upgrade fee because you are breaking your 12m contract terms and conditions.
Bit Weird, as I want to pay MORE, not less, Ergo UPGRADE not DOWNGRADE.
I understand, but you also got to understand you signed a 12m contract for X per month, that's why there's terms and conditions to 12m contracts.
The amount of customers that have argued with me regarding your upgrade/downgrade reason doesn't get any customers anywhere. Our system doesn't allow it because the contract doesn't allow it.
That's like many customers trying to end their 24 month contract so they can get the next model phone (usually 1 year in) and disputing they are paying more per month if they sign a new 24m contract. Same rules, signed a 24m contract, you're obligated to fulfill that term unless you payout.
If you don't agree, I understand. There is a feedback form online you can use to relay what you said to me.
What cost-cutting measures have you seen in your tenure that are costing Optus customers and end up costing them more money?
The plans in the last 4 years I've been in retail is quite competitive and reasonable. Sure the monthly fee has gone up but the benefits in the plan has risen quite significantly. I remember a 80 plan only giving like 6gb, now there are promotions that a 80 plan will give you like 20gb. People tend to look at only the per month price but forget they are getting a better phone, more GB, included benefits like unlimited spotify streaming etc……
What Optus does internally to cut-costs doesn't really affect the price per month for consumers because the prices are competing with Telstra and Voda.
Why do I have to prove my identity everytime my call gets transferred to a different division?
Just yesterday, I had to give my account number, full name, date of birth and address FOUR TIMES on ONE CALL.
WHY?
Warm Transfer: When the rep speaks to the other rep for you so the 2nd rep doesn't need to ID you.
Cold Transfer: When the rep transfers you without speaking to the other rep.
So when you get cold transferred, that rep doesn't know who you are or your enquiry, its a whole new call for them. It's annoying, we deal with it as well but there's nothing you or the in-store rep can do. Unless each rep in the call centre warm transfers everyone which is not going to happen.
I went to the Optus Headquarters in Sydney a few years back as part of my interview for a grad position and it was crazy cool! Is the culture there really as awesome as the workers there at the time made it seem like? or was that most likely all show to get grads interested?
I got to admit, I miss working in HQ. It was amazing, lots of things to do and alot of events going on.
No it wasn't a mirage, the culture is quite good, HQ is visually pleasing and alot of things to do on your breaks.
BUT… yes there is a but, for a new employee to soak in the greatness of HQ, it depends on your job. I was in the call centre, so I was stuck in the office taking phone calls 7.25 hours a day. There are so many times I missed so many events cause I needed to sit my butt down to take phone calls. If you're in a job that is not tied down to your desk and you can freely roam HQ, it's pretty damn good.
I assume you didn't get the position? :( It's very competitive from what I hear and very hard to secure a spot. Even my colleagues that went to Uni and worked for Optus for 5 years didn't get through either.
Damn! I thought the games room as super cool and that robot that makes you coffee.
I got offered a position but at the time I thought it was very risky as there was no guarantee that I will be taken on upon completion of the program. Took the safer option and gone to a smaller private company instead!
If it secures you a job for sure, I would take the smaller private company as well, they usually treat employees better anyways.
Optus is prob the best and easiest provider i jave delt with when there were issue, i actually perfer offshore as they are more sympathetic and easier to haggle with for discounts, now i pay 60 pm on a 90 bundle after discounts and perks..
I agree, in the 1st page I explain why I rather deal with Off-shore reps than Australians.
How does someone get through to an Australian person in Australia, not someone in another country? Are there special words or numbers to dial?
Please read my reply to ShannonN. Short answer: There's no special number or action.
Why is the online chat so unhelpful when it comes to changing plans?
I've had numerous upgrades declined through chat, that were then authorised through phoning them with no issues.
Previous change of plan fees were waived through phoning them but not through chat.
When you even suggest an alternative or a fix to the problem, they always generically write back "Thanks, is there anything else I can help you with today?"
I can't give you an answer sorry.
When upgrade approvals and declines happen through different departments, online/phone/store, we are stumped too. Sometimes we have customers coming in-store saying they have been declined online but when we do the credit check in-store they get accepted. We also get customer being declined from other stores but when they come to my store, they are accepted.
No one really gave us an insight why this happens.
All good.
Thanks for the fast reply.
My question is why did you leave this job now since you have been there 4 years?
I left the call centre because I wanted to pursue my dream of being a graphics designer. Which I am now :)
I studied media and graphics design at uni for 5 years, I am in my last year now, hence went to retail for a part time job. Though, I was comfortable when it was a franchise, my workmates and manager were cool. I liked coming to work, when Optus bought out the franchise, everything went downhill…… FAST, but i needed a part time job and since the timetable fit my uni schedule and I am pretty damn confident with my product knowledge, I stayed while studying.
Main reasons were;
- I left cause Optus was not my career, it was a job
- Getting paid 20.50 isn't great for the jobs we had to do in-store, also franchise days got paid ALOT more.
- Optus did not replace any people that left the store, everyone had high stress, alot of sick leave taken, people took annual leave etc. As you can imagine this took a huge toll on the people that were working
- Manager was a complete d**k to everyone and expected for people to work 6 out of 7 days per week because we were so understaff. Also unethical and illegal practices which I raised to HR. My manager at the time threatened my job if I couldn't work more days and he would "speak to the area manager regarding my hours".
- Dealing with irate customers all day isn't the best thing in the world.
Good one - follow your passion !
Sorry just logged on now. Thanks for your reply! Love your eagerness.
When a call centre operator puts a customer on hold for 5 minutes over a simple issue, are they really just answering another customer call in that 5 minutes?
Nope, the program won't let us take in multiple calls. Either that rep is asking for help or finding the answer on the intranet. Or that rep just doesn't want to talk to you. :P
Any clues as to how to get data sims/sharing free or cheaper ?
My friend got a couple of data sims for free a while back.
Data sims for $15/month is keeping me away
Unfortunately the 0.00 data sharing sim is gone, been gone for a while now. That was so popular until Optus realised there was money to be made and canned it.
Then it went to minimum $5, then $10 now $15.
But….. if you find a rep that accidentally put you on a $5 or $10 data sharing plan then, that's if the plan is still in the system to select then… ;)
can prepaid data share? ie the $120 60 gb 365 day deal?
prepaid can't data share at all, only postpaid
where can I find the right rep?
In-store, but the chances are, to find a rep that is willing to 'accidentally' put u on it is very slim.
PS thanks for the prompt reply
I was on my comp now anyways before gym :)
Why does PrePaid online activation never work and I always have to either live chat or call to get my number ported? I do jump from sim to sim every month…
Details maybe inputted incorrectly?
In-store, we sometimes use the online activation tool you guys use as well, never really had a problem. Only those rare times where a customer would come back and say it's not ported but that's either we put in the incorrect details, or the details from the other carrier is wrong.
I don't think it's my details since I give the same details to the staff on the online chat, however I do suspect my number is flagged on some list because I jump to a different carrier every month. Thanks for doing this AMA interesting read.
Customers jump ship all the time, we can't flag your number in any way. Well that I don't know of anyways. But then again, I never served a customer that changes monthly.
That's committed :O
If you're the muppet I had to deal with a year ago you can go get (profanity)
Yup it was me. Definitely me, here's a peace offering to help you with the distress I have caused you. Thankyou, and I hope I have resolved your problem :)
Please stay on the line to answer a quick survey of how we've assisted you today.
Funny thing is, we use those recordings in our training meetings
How are they able to offer plans so cheap? What is the catch?
What I've been pitched when working is that Optus does not make money from residential accounts, they are just nice little revenue of pockets. The big money is with corporations, S/M/L businesses.
I'm paying 75 a month for a galaxy S9 and at the time the S9 was like 1200 outright? But the S9 purchase from Samsung is about 900 I believe when I use to order stock to the store. So $75 x 24m = 1800, so technically Optus is making 900 profit in the very basics of maths. But that 'profit' goes towards overheads and there isn't much left over in terms of pure profit.
Apparently to generate true profit from a customer, it takes minimum 3 years and that's taking into consideration the customer pays their bills and asking for no credits.
I managed an 800k business account which included mobile fleet, internet and isdn. Was negotiating with Optus and Telstra and had some poor experience with Optus around the same time.
It cost them an 800k contract. They don’t seem to get it that everyone they deal with potentially wears more than one hat.
If you had a 800k corporate account with optus why didn't you use your account rep to sort out your issues instead of calling a help desk?
@cjmorgan87: Because we didn’t have an $800k corporate account with Optus and I never said we did. We had one with Telstra. Optus were trying to win our business. But if they can’t look after a simple personal account then I certainly couldn’t trust them to look after a very large one.
So when you hear recordings in training of actual customer calls do they mask the customer details or can you hear it all? Has anyone in the call Center or yourself ever looked up someone who called through and gave their details? Or used those details for dodgy purposes if they pissed you off enough?
Nah we only hear the conversation not their details.
Like get revenge on a customer if they piss us off? Yes we have your personal info that pops up when you give us your account details, but we can't do anything with it.
I can think of a few "dodgy" things to do if someone gave me their details but that's with any company that keeps personal information.
Can you explain what I did wrong here.
I was interested into signing up to a plan a few years ago. I read the Critical Information Summaries. Oh there is a bonus offer on yes I'll sign up for sure with them now. I'll just ask a question to confirm the deal is still active via their social media pages. Shouldn't take too long.
Me: So is X still a offer on that I read it in your CIS? :)
Optus: Where did you find that?
Me: Your CIS. Critical Information Summaries on your website. :)
Optus: That ended a over a month ago.
Me: No biggy. So can you update your Critical Information Summaries to reflect that then? This may mislead potential customers. Specially if they like me read the CIS before signing up they would be in for a not nice surprise once they got their fist bill :)
Optus: No. We can say whatever we like in it provided we don't personally advertise it directly to anyone.
Me: How so? Isn't it a legal agreement eg customers rights what to expect prices additional charges etc so needs to be up to date?
Optus: (repeats the last message. But this time with a we can change offers at anytime clause.)
Me: I went and found a few things off fair tradings site like baiting and switching.
Optus: Last message copy and pasted again
Me: So why are all existing deals have a end date then? I'm interested to see why this one is excluded.
Optus: what deals?
Me: lists several ancient old offers. Start and end dates
Optus: They have all expired.
Me: Really who would have thought…
Also this is pretty much exactly what happened I didn't get mad or tell them off. My last message was a tad bit snarky but around 1 hour had passed and I had been blamed for reading the CIS in full before signing up.
If they said even a token yes we will fix it up I would have signed up but nope. Only thing I got out of them was they acted like I was in the wrong for thinking the CIS had to be up to date.
When I signed up to iiNet I found the same thing a out of date CIS and they told me they would fix it within 3 days and they did.
So why did Optus decide to put up such a fight?
I'm very interested in seeing how you would have handled it. :)
In my experience, chat is useless. I'm with Optus for my mobile phone and I will never order a phone online or through chat. Yes, there are hundreds of successful orders that do make it. Because I worked in retail, I get all the customers with problems, therefor I've seen all the problem dealing with chat. I just don't like online chat, it's lengthy and the amount of upselling or cross selling they try to do just takes more time.
Ok now with the CIS, I never had a CIS that was out of date when working. The CIS on the website has up to date CIS's, this page has the list of CIS's but there's a link "View CIS library for all plans (inc. archives)" which has the old CIS's. When people google specific CIS's, sometimes they are linked to the archived ones not the recent ones.
Though if you truly believe it's a current offer, the website product page should have it or if you're in doubt, go to a store, show them the CIS, each CIS has a number and they can tell you if its a current offer.
Stores have access to all the current and previous deals going in the intranet. All deals will have an end date.
Yes it was that CIS page it wasn't a randomly googled offer page. Went to devices page which was a 4G modem I clicked the latest plan which matched what was listed on the devices page like today example being. eg My Mobile Broadband Plus 24M $15 / $25 / $60. Then read though it.
Little bit different set up to how it was then vs today. Now there isn't any confusion back then there was I think cases like mine where why CIS's had to become cleaner to read. :)
In that sense, let's say it was a current offer and the rep said it was expired. There was a chance that rep confused that offer with an expired offer. There are plenty of times where similar offers and extended offers are presented. I got to admit, few times I said it's expired and the deal was extended and I didn't know.
My suggestion is: If the CIS stated new customers eligible for 2 months free, go to the actual product page of that product and see if you can find a second blurb that states it apart from the CIS. Also check in-store and don't rely on 1 person. Screenshot the offer as well.
But if you're having doubts, just kindly ask them to look in the intranet if its still current.
Is it true that Optus stands for “opt to us”?
Yes, I didn't know that until I worked in retail
Hi, are you sure that the training is comprehensive?
It may just be my poor luck, but most of the Optus call centre staffs I've talked to, are incompetent.
They would often transfer me to another staff, and after I explain my whole situation again, the new staff are just as incompetent and the cycle repeats.
Depends on your enquiry and training is comprehensive when being trained in your own product line. For example, I was in billing/light tech support/complaints so I was cross-trained therefor I would know more information than just a normal rep.
However, knowing what other departments can and cannot do was not easy. It's a hit and miss, we are not really trained in-depth and it's pretty much learning on the spot or asking another rep/manager if X department to be transferred is right for you.
Reps are blindly transferring customers, assuming X department can help you but you end up in the wrong department. Reps are under strict KPIs, there is a reply I made about warm/cold transfers and KPI's in the 1st page I believe.
To my understanding, it just comes down to poor education in relaying what other departments can and cannot do.
Yes, think you hit the nail on the head.
It not just Optus, seems like a general problem for most call centres.
If the reps can transfer us once to the correct department, it would make the world of difference.
Hey, I've got a good one for you: At the call centre, do they teach you how to say your name over the phone ambiguously, or is that just something everyone learns to do?
Seems every time I call up a help centre, it always goes the same way
Hello, thank you for calling optus support. My name is h-#static#, how may I help you
I think it's just the lack of commonality in human nature in general. If you do end up getting a rep that has a unique name, it will sound strange to you, therefor one will process words/names you know in that greet but the 'ambiguous' name you need to hear it a couple more times.
You always hear how terrible telco customer services are but I've often wondered what it's like on the inside. Are they crappy places with harsh call turnaround times or is it fairly easy going? What are the managers like? Is it a good place to work or is every day a drag?
Oh I can write you a novel what goes on in the call centre. I've worked at 2, QBE and Optus and it's the same.
But let's keep it short and sweet, maybe short.
1 - The reason why I stayed is because of my manager and colleagues. Everyone on the floor (about 8 teams, with 8 - 12 people per team, this could have changed since I haven't been there in like 4 years), get along so well! We are all mixed in ages, race and interests.
2 - Managers is a mix bag, my manager was amazing and no one had a problem with him BUT… other teams, they hated their manager. Micromanaging, nagging, slacking off etc etc. I was very lucky to get some great managers.
3 - Every is a drag, you are stuck in your seat for approx 7 hours a day answering call after call after call. 35 hours of phone calls per week, each day you're always thinking about your next break and home time. People put stickers infront of the time because it can go so slow.
4 - The reason why call centres have high turn overs is because of the KPI's, they are very strict and alot of people can't handle irate customers day in and day out. Every 2nd call is pretty much a dispute, it's not fun at all.
5 - The job does get easier when you know how to navigate around programs and how to defuse customers, then the KPIs will be easier to reach, thus managers will less likely to annoy you
6 - Everything has a KPI, going to the toilet? Sure you can but you have to use some minutes off the day to go the toilet
Conclusion: I highly recommend NOT to work in a call centre. When I transition to retail, it was 100000% more better in the sense of my time isn't monitored 24/7, I can come back from breaks like 3 minutes late or go to lunch whenever I want.
I want to add another service to my current phone plan, say for example, an iPad, is there anyway you guys can do that the iPad plan doesn't display as a separate service (a different number) on my monthly mobile bill?
Unfortunately no, each mobile broadband service will have a number attached to it. All our services whether its mobile phone, broadband, nbn, landline etc will always have some type of number or username attached to it. There is no way for the system to hide it or just charge you without some type of reference to it.
when you were working in retail was there a policy in turning customers towards call centres when they asked for a simple upgrade for sim only plan?
a couple years ago, went in store because thought it would be wiser when signing up to a new contract and this guy ask me for my account detail and went to find it on the computer and next thing I know the guy prints out my phone bill and hands it to me and say here call this number and basically walks away. ended up doing it online had some issues which was the whole reasons I went in store but eventually got it fixed by going in store -_-
to be honest I figured it was just that one guy that "helped" me but still sure was a baffling experience first time I went for an upgrade in like five years and this pops up.
Yes, the policy for sim only plans changed. Customers now need to do it online themselves to upgrade but new customers can do it instore. Call centres and in-store won't do it, because we're not allowed to do it. Even if we were to do it, our usernames get flagged and we get pulled up in a report and we have to explain why we did it.
Everything is audited, its not funny.
Policy changes ALOT, so don't be surprised if you come in 1 month ago, was told one thing and tomorrow you're told another thing.
Also, I use to do it for customers in-store, I would just enter their details in the Optus website for them while they look at my doing it. Before I would do it, I would say something like: "just to let you know, we're not meant to do it in-store, this is an online order so any problems, you need to speak to online chat when I put it through". Then auditing picked up on reps doing it for customers and told managers to hand out verbal warnings if any rep is caught doing it for customers.
If you have a customer that wants to upgrade for another 24 months, How likely you or online call centre can void last few months - say 3 of their contract?
They changed the policy from 3 months to 1 month. It sucks I know, but 3 months was good will and people did sign a 24 month contract.
Calling customer service, retention or even online, if you're NOT targeted to upgrade few months early, they may do something out of goodwill but most likely will not give you the whole three months, not even 2….
Are/were you able to get discounted internet or mobile plans from Optus because you were working for Optus that would be so good you would never look for other plans?
Something like NSW Public Transport employees get an "employee card" which makes all travel for them for free.